Find out how the USS Enterprise escaped disaster at Cortes Bank in 1985 and revealed the peril of this underwater volcano and its mythical waves.
The USS Enterprise, one of the United States Navy’s most famous aircraft carriers, had a close and fatal brush with Cortes Bank a underwater seamount that’s infamous for producing some of the largest and most deadly waves on the planet.
Off the coast of Southern California, this underwater sea monster has been destroying ships for hundreds of years, and on November 2, 1985, it almost destroyed one of the Navy’s nuclear giants.
1. The Sea Incident
While conducting an Operational Readiness Exercise out of San Diego, the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Robert L. Leuschner Jr., was practicing simulated strikes against defended targets. In a fleeting lapse of attention following a spurious report of an on-board gunman the vessel was steered too close to Cortes Bank’s rock-shoals.
The outcome was disastrous: a 60-foot gash was torn in its torpedo-proof hull, three of its four propellers were disabled, and the port keel was crippled beyond repair. The devastation was massive, and the threat of disaster and particularly for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was immense.
2. Quick Action Averted Tragedy
Due to rapid response and ocean readiness, things were brought under control. The crew carried out counterflooding to stabilize the carrier, and marines watched over shark-infested waters as divers evaluated the damage. Miraculously, the Enterprise floated back to port for repair.
3. Cortes Bank: A History of Danger and Wonder
Cortes Bank was already found to be dangerous. It has sunk ships and tested sailors to the limit with its ruthless unpredictability throughout history. It is also legendary among surfers for its monster waves.
As Chris Dixon has described in Ghost Wave The Discovery of Cortes Bank and the Biggest Wave on Earth, a 15-foot, 20-second wave can create four to five times larger, and therefore gargantuan swells of as much as 75 feet and under the most optimal circumstances even 100 feet.
4. The Surfers’ Fad
Some of the world’s best surfers are attracted to these mythic waves in spite of the huge danger. As authorities ponder whether a 100-foot wave at Cortes Bank is surfer-friendly or not, history proves the limits of big-wave surfing being pushed further still. What was impossible such as surfing Waimea Bay prior to 1957 was made possible.
The 1985 USS Enterprise adventure is a movie reminder of the brute power and secret danger of the sea. Cortes Bank, with its deadly shoals and gaudy waves, is both a warning about the danger of nature and a promise of the beauty of nature. To mariners, it’s a call to be prudent in steering to surfers, it is the farthest reaches of man where guts, skill, and danger meet on the face of a wave.
